The Tides of Time
by that.annoying.kid
Summary: Bethany and Vern were two inseparable souls. Even between the crack that separates life and death...
1. Back to square one

Blonde ringlets sat in her eyes. Her focus was in front of her. Without a word, she stared ahead blankly. "Aren't you exited to be coming back home?" Bethany shrugged her shoulders at her mother sitting next to her. "Dunno." She whispered in reply. Silence fell back in the air surrounding both mother and daughter. Nadine kept driving and sighed. Leaves brushed against the rooftop of the Land Rover, they were headed further and further from the countryside. Besides them standing proudly were tall, drooping trees. Each branch pointed outwards and downwards, dancing in the wind and rain. It was as if they were welcoming the arrival of Castle Rock's new resident. "Look sweetheart, we're almost there!" Nadine exclaimed as they crossed a familiar bridge with even more familiar red rails. "Are you okay?" She paused, placing a hand on Bethany's. They were now heading down the small towns main street passing "Sukeys Tavern" where Bethany caught a glimpse of the billiards sign on its window and realised just how long she had been gone for.

Beth slumped herself deeper into the car seat and sunk her chin into the fuzziness of her pink, woolen scarf and forced a toothy grin, "I am" she retorted.

She knew her mother was only trying to help. With a clean slate, maybe it was going to help. She fiddled with the gold band around her fourth finger on her left hand, gripping at it desperately as if she was trying to reconnect with her lost lover.

It had been only three weeks since Beth's fiancé Vern had died tragically in a house fire. He had been drinking that night celebrating a friend's 25th. Luckily on Beth's part she was not at the house party, but was at home babysitting her three-year-old niece. She had received the phone call at 3am and she had rushed to the scene of the disaster and that was when she knew her life was over.

Vernon Tessio, who was commonly known as "Penny" had been the man of Bethany Ward's heart since she was sixteen. She had been in love with him for ten years, and they had been engaged for two. He wasn't the chubby, dim-witted thebe that some had thought he was. He was simply lovable. Just for the fact that he was him. He always made her laugh, he hugged her tightly every time his arms were near her and he whirled her around on his big broad shoulders while she laughed and cried at the same time. She would lay her head on his cushion of a belly and wrap her arm around his side as they lay together in bed, and he would affectionately play with her hair as she drifted off to sleep.

Those were the memories that Bethany could never get back again. Maybe the simple act of moving away from her loss in Ohio could help her move forward in her new life in her old hometown of Castle Rock.

"We've been working all weekend to get the house ready for you, darling." Nadine's voice sliced through the silence.

Bethany caught a glimpse of her murky reflection in the tinted window next to her. She was in a terrible state. She thought to herself. Probably a much more terrible state than the house was ever in.

"We're nearly at our street!" Nadine informed her daughter quietly, as if to warn her to look lively. They passed a tiny church with a white steeple and Bethany stiffened in the car seat. It was the church that Vern had mentioned in their wedding plans. He wanted to have his children baptised there too. He wanted to bring his family to Castle Rock- the most beautiful place in the world.

They were now swinging up a steep driveway of a rather tiny old cottage. There _he_ was, Vern, standing on the porch in welcome wearing his usual warm grin with both hands in his pockets. Bethany's eyes widened in disbelief, her vision became suddenly impaired by warm tears that filled the corners of her eyes and the tears rolled down her cheeks, fell off her chin and disappeared along with Vern. He was gone.

The car engine had turned off and Bethany was now facing her childhood home with its same overgrown shrubbery on the bottom of the raised porch. Roses still lined the path from the front lawn to the letterbox at the same wire fence. On the outside looking in, she tried to remember exactly how a family of five managed to function at ease in a house so small.

"It's good to see you Bethany!" A familiar voice filled her head. "I'm sorry I didn't meet you at the airport but I've been getting everything ready for you." Lewis made his way down the front steps of the porch to greet his stepdaughter.

"I made your old favourite, blueberry cheesecake for desert tonight. I hope you'll like it." Bethany scrambled out of the car and was met by his embrace. He patted the centre of her back in soothing motions. "Let us go inside…" He led her gently to the porch and carried her bags with Nadine on his other side.

The house was much bigger inside. A hallway greeted them at the front door and ran the entire length of the house right to the back sitting room, a number of doorways sprouted out from both sides along the way. The walls were a warm peach colour lined with framed family portraits. Each member of the family seemed to have their special place on the wall starting from Nadine's great, great grandma Bessie to Nadine and Lewis' youngest grandchildren Leah and James.

Lewis has put the bags down in the spacious living room towards the back of the house.

"Would you like a drink?" Louis offered both his wife and stepdaughter as he stepped into the adjoining kitchen, which Bethany had noticed had been newly renovated. It had been re-tiled and was now tiled in an appealing pattern of red and grey.

Bethany and Nadine both shook their heads in unison and glance at each other silently. Nadine had reassuringly grabbed her daughter's hand and led her back into the hallway.

"Remember your old room, baby?" Nadine had asked quietly as she placed her hand upon the brass doorhandle to the door opposite the living room.

An unwelcome tear threatened to fall from the corner of her eye. "I do." Bethany nodded, not knowing what to expect when the door would be opened.

A twinkle in Nadine's eyes told her that she would be impressed when the door was open. _"Ta da" _Nadine sung upon turning the handle.

As far as rooms went, this room was pretty amazing. Throughout Bethany's teen years, it was her haven. When it came time for her leave home when she was nineteen, almost ten years ago she never noticed just how big it was.

A large window filled one wall, looking over the rolling hills of Castle Rock and parts of Harlow; high above the hills in the distance was Castle View. The walls were freshly painted in relaxing lavender and contrasted against a solid white wooden bed head that faced the window. It was good to see her old bed in the same place it always was in; overlooking Castle Rock just the way she always liked it. Somehow as Beth walked to the window, she felt higher than anybody above the small town, she looked down upon it all.

Bethany turned to her bed and sat down. Nadine still stood in the doorway with her usual motherly smile on her face. At least her daughter was safe, and that's what mattered most. Lewis' whistles echoed in the kitchen- Bethany was home again. Back at square one- alone and with her parents again.

* * *

The following days days were awful. Bethany had just barely survived what would have been their anniversary and his birthday- he would have been 28. If it weren't for her medication she would have ended up at the bottom of the Royal River. She had the idea to run there at night when everybody else was in bed and unable to notice.

She would see Vern standing at the shoreline waiting for her to emerge in her new life. As she plunged herself deeper under the sharp cold water, seconds to being with him came closer and closer. She would always open her eyes when she was surfacing from the river and realise it was another dream. She never did see his face.

Night after night for twelve years he had been there with her, his heart beating in his chest. How many times had she put her head there and heard it, and felt it. If only she knew what was going to happen.

It was almost midnight. The house was dark and silent.

The curtains of Beth's windows danced gently in the calm breeze that slipped through her open window. Beth started out her window, watching the lights spy upon the townspeople asleep in their beds. She was startled as she realised her curtains had ceased to dance.

The air was thick.

"If I knew you were going to leave me, Vern, I would have not loved you like I did."

_You would have, Beth. I know you._

A familiar smell had filled her room. Undeniable. It filled her senses, tickled her nose. She could taste the sweetness of the smell on the tip of her tongue.

"Why can't I just see you again?

_Just go to sleep baby. I'll see you in the morning. _

With that, Bethany rolled over in her bed and drifted off to sleep. The smell lingered until she no longer knew of her surroundings and she had slipped into a long awaited, peaceful slumber.

When morning inevitably rolled over, the smell had gone. Bethany opened her eyes groggily and shielded her face from the light with her hands wondering if it was all a dream.

_He was right there…_

She turned to her right, looked at the corner between the opened window and her dresser. He was right there…


	2. Almost a widow

The smell of crackling bacon in the frypan had pulled her away from her dreamless snooze. Nadine's familiar voice hummed an old tune _"Dizzy, I'm so dizzy my head is spinnin'" _

Bethany's own head began to spin at the sound of that voice. She couldn't possibly get out of bed, the clock beside her only read 8:15 am and her body was a tonne of bricks.

This morning was exactly eight days since Vern's funeral. She reminded herself, hopeless tears threatened to fall from her eyes. She sniffed them back and reached for her pills.

She swallowed two heavy dry clumps and willed them to ease her pain.

"Do you think they're helping?" Nadine peered behind the door.

"Nothing is helping."

"Let me know if you need anything, sweetheart." She closed the door behind her.

Bethanys eyes rolled to the back of her head, she was almost in a trance. She was so tired. Her body began to flop. She turned and fell asleep.

She dreamed.

She stood there shivering, only cradling herself in her own arms to keep warm. Her toes were numb from the cold grass beneath her feet, the damp condensation sunk into her skin as she breathed out warm trails of smog into the cold dusk air. It was her last night in her home she had shared with her fiancé, tomorrow she was leaving for Castle Rock.

Her bags were packed and his belongings were left disregarded. His clothes were strewn across the bedroom and laundry floor just as he had left them. The bathroom was filled with the scent of his cologne still. The bed sheets still unwashed and his indent still left in the mattress they shared.

Only her bags were packed.

If she placed his shoes and clothes, his toiletries and books away in a tiny dark box he wouldn't come back for them. He just wasn't coming back.

Her teeth chattered as her eyes wandered over the greenery that grew luminously over the back picket fence.

"_This isn't the only place I know where to find you." _

His voice soothed behind her ear as her body was covered in a blanket of immense warmth and love from Vern. His arms wrapped around her body.

"_I'll always find you."  
_

She awoke.

Her heavy body thrashed itself around her bed mattress, sending pillows and blankets flying to the ground. "Stop doing this to me!" She screamed.

Her throat closed over, head spinning she fell into a panic attack.

"Leave me alone!" She cried through her tears.

With her body heat rising, her hair stuck to her face in damp strands. "I asked you to come back and stop interfering with my thoughts." She called for him. "Please, Vern."

But he wasn't there and he didn't listen.

Nadine had rushed through the bedroom door to her daughter's aid. "Darling!" She crooned in her shock. She ran to her and held Bethany in her arms.

"I keep seeing him mum!" She sobbed.

"I know Beth, that's why you've been given these." She reached over to the small white bottle of pills.

"They aren't working!"

"Well they should be. Your hallucinations aren't nearly as bad as before."

"They aren't hallucinations! He's here, I smell him and I can feel him." She whispered through dry heaves and wet sobs.

"No!" Nadine snapped impatiently. "You cannot because he is dead! Vern is dead."

"I know. I know. I know." She repeated spasmodically.

"You aren't making any sense Beth." Nadine rubbed her baby's back soothingly as she lay down on her stomach, weeping into her pillows leaving salty patched under her cheeks.

"I can't tell you anything. You won't understand."

This offended Nadine and she stopped rubbing Bethany's back and sat up straight. "I wish you could." She said with her hurt slipping through her spoken words.

Nadine sat with Bethany until the miracle of her medication had kicked in and let her slip from her conscious pain and loss of being an almost widow.

Someday, she'll see him again. She knew it.

* * *

**Sorry this chapter is so short! I just wanted to get it rolling :)**


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